Page:The Native Tribes of South Australia (1879).djvu/47

 INTRODUCTION. xxxvii thighs are not strongly developed. The lips are rather thick, but different altogether from those of the African black. The teeth are beautifully regular, but the incisors are not sharp, like those of the European, but flat, and not unlike molars. The trunk of the body is well-shaped, and the chest is generally both broad and deep. The hair is black and glossy, and when not disfigured by the disgusting pigments with which it is too frequently smeared, is really beautiful. The carriage is erect, and the gait marked with an elegance and grace peculiar to the race. The features of the men are certainly not handsome in any sense of the word, but the women, except in rare instances, or amongst young girls, are almost hideous. They reach the height of about five feet. Their frames are not so well developed as those of the males. The poor creatures, however, are always seen to a disadvantage, being, as before mentioned, the slaves of their husbands and of the tribes. In intellectual capacity the Aborigines seem to occupy a low position in the scale of humanity. They do not seem to have descended from a higher condition of civilisation, for there are no traces of any such transition anywhere; nor, on the other hand, is there the slightest evidence that they have advanced in any degree from their primal condition. In fact, they seem to be incapable of any permanent improvement, for none of those to whom the benefits of civilisation have been made familiar have ever adopted them when beyond the white man’s control. They seem to be like children. Their brain seems to be only partially developed, and they cannot be instructed beyond a certain point. The writer is aware that others who have had intimate acquaintance with the Aboriginal tribes hold somewhat different views. They have been considered by Captain Grey at least "as able and intelligent as any other race of men that I am acquainted with." Others, however, have formed a much lower estimate of their powers. Their perceptive faculties are great, and this is evidenced by their wonderful skill as trackers in the bush. All that has been written of the skill and cunning of the American Indian as an enemy or as a hunter does not exceed, even if it equals, those of